Mühlauer Bridge

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Coordinates: 47 ° 16 ′ 49 ″  N , 11 ° 24 ′ 18 ″  E

Mühlauer Bridge
Mühlauer Bridge
use Tiroler Strasse
Crossing of Inn
place innsbruck
overall length 106.5 m
width 17 m
Number of openings 3
start of building November 1937
completion August 1939
location
Mühlauer Bridge (Tyrol)
Mühlauer Bridge

The Mühlauer Brücke (originally Saggenbrücke , 1843–1938 and still colloquially the Chain Bridge ) is a road bridge over the Inn in Innsbruck . It connects Mühlau on the left with Saggen  on the right bank of the Inn.

history

Wooden bridges (1581–1843)

Until the beginning of the modern era, the Inn Bridge was between the old town and Mariahilf-St. Nikolaus is the only fixed crossing in the Innsbruck area. After the Saggen, an area enclosed like a “sack” by the Inn and Sill , was increasingly used for court purposes ( courtyard garden , zoo, pleasure house) in the 16th century , Archduke Ferdinand II left a bridge over the Inn at its northern end in 1581 build. It served the faster connection of Innsbruck (especially the Hofburg ) with Hall and was the first step in the expansion of this route, which was followed in 1585 by the construction of the road through the Haller Au on the valley floor. Until then, traffic between Innsbruck and Hall ran over the old Inn bridge, St. Nikolaus and the MARTHA villages on the slope of the Nordkette. The Saggenbrücke was initially reserved for the court, in 1643 it was opened to general traffic in return for a bridge toll .

The bridge was initially made of wood and was often damaged or destroyed by floods and rebuilt. In 1728 it had five pillars, three in 1802 and two in 1822. Since 1595 at the latest, a water pipe led from Mühlau over the bridge to supply the farm to Innsbruck.

Chain Bridge (1843–1938)

The Chain Bridge near Innsbruck , lithograph by Basilio Armani , before 1900

In 1837, the Innsbruck building management recommended replacing the wooden bridge with a chain bridge . Emperor Ferdinand I granted the building permit on January 23, 1838, and Josef Duile was  entrusted with the planning and construction management . Work began on December 14, 1838. In November and December 1842 the chains were laid from tower to tower, on July 15, 1843 a stress test was carried out, after which the bridge was opened to traffic without any celebrations. It was the only chain bridge in Tyrol and was considered the most beautiful, but also the most expensive chain bridge of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy. The costs had risen from an estimated 113,000 guilders to 206,000 guilders.

The bridge had two 16 m high gate towers made of Nagelfluh blocks with abutments and spanned the approximately 75 m wide Inn without river piers. The two load-bearing chains consisted of 54 freely visible, 1.85 m long chain links each with 7 slats. The total weight of the two chains was 56 tons. 51 wrought iron rods hung down from the chain links and supported the substructure of the bridge with 46 larch passages and corresponding ends. The roadway consisted of a high-heeled pavement made of oak wood, from 1873 of granite cubes. The span from tower to tower was 75.85 m, the width of the bridge 9.8 m, of which 5.4 m was accounted for by the carriageway and 1.8 m for each of the two sidewalks.

It was not until 1870 that the piles of the earlier wooden bridge were removed. The local railway Innsbruck – Hall in Tirol , opened in 1891, crossed the Inn on its own bridge next to the Chain Bridge.

Reinforced concrete bridge (since 1939)

Since the chain bridge was unable to cope with the increased traffic and the load-bearing capacity had to be reduced to 3 t, the local council decided on October 23, 1936 to build a new building that no longer crosses the Inn at right angles, but rather at an angle, extending the street layout of the Rennweg . The planned demolition of the chain bridge led to considerable public protests. Construction began on November 15, 1937, the chain bridge was demolished in February 1938 and the new bridge was completed on August 5, 1939. Most of the costs were borne by the federal road administration, the rest was shared by the city of Innsbruck, the municipality of Mühlau and the local railway company.

The iron solid wall girder bridge leads diagonally across the Inn on two brick river piers. The river piers were founded with iron sheet pile walls 3.5 m below the river bed and clad with Ötztal granite. The Nagelfluhsteine ​​of the chain bridge were used for the abutments. The length is 106.5 m, the width 17 m. The tracks of the local railway ran on the eastern side until they were closed.

In autumn 2019 the bridge was completely renovated and the traffic control changed.

traffic

As part of the B 171 Tiroler Straße, the Mühlauer Brücke connects Haller Straße with Rennweg and serves to connect the city center with the districts northeast of the Inn. It has four lanes and sidewalks on both sides.

literature

  • Wilhelm Eppacher: The Innbrücken in Innsbruck (2nd continuation). In: Official Journal of the State Capital Innsbruck, No. 1, February 1954, p. 8 ( digitized version )
  • Herbert Woditschka: The Chain Bridge 1843–1938. In: Innsbruck. Official bulletin of the state capital, No. 7, July 19, 1979, p. 12 ( digitized version )
  • Franz-Heinz Hye: Mühlauer Bridge 1581–1981. In: Innsbrucker Stadtnachrichten No. 7/1981, p. 16 ( digitized version )
  • Franz Gerlich: Reconstruction of the Mühlauer Chain Bridge. In: Official Journal of the State Capital Innsbruck, December 15, 1937, pp. 3–6 ( digitized version )
  • Christoph Hölz, Klaus Tragbar, Veronika Weiss (Hrsg.): Architectural guide Innsbruck . Haymon, Innsbruck 2017, ISBN 978-3-7099-7204-5 , pp. 117 .
  • Rudolf Sinwel: The Mühlauer Bridge. On the occasion of the ninety years of existence of the Chain Bridge. In: Tiroler Heimatblätter 1933, p. 271 f.

Web links

Commons : Mühlauer Brücke  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Franz-Heinz Hye: Mühlau. A contribution to the history of the districts of Innsbruck. In: The window. Tyrolean culture magazine. Volume 17 (1975/76), pp. 1795–1803 ( PDF; 3.6 MB )
  2. Bridge lock. In:  Innsbrucker Nachrichten , August 11, 1873, p. 7 (online at ANNO ).Template: ANNO / Maintenance / ibn